Russ Hamilton (the Location Manager for Supernatural) has that music that plays during gunfights in westerns as his ringtone. You know: doalualu do do do do dualualu do do do do.

And that's all you need to know for this scene from today:

I'm on the Official Location Tour, and Russ pauses next to my seat on the bus to answer his phone, which has just rung. I smile at the ringtone.

Russ: Yes? ...It's on fire now?

And he says it in a voice where I'm not sure if he was perhaps expecting something to be on fire...but I'm not sure, so...

Me: That can't be good.

And Russ looks me dead in the eye, and mouths: THE BACKLOT IS ON FIRE.

I believe I gave him an expression similar to the one Dean is wearing in my icon.

Sure enough, when we were in sight of Burnaby, you could see a large plume of smoke...and when we got to the closest intersection, you could see the extent of the fire. Russ thinks they lost their favourite bar to film in, and the pizzaria that Dean met Death in, and a lot of the brownstones that looked like New York as well.

Supernatual WASN'T filming there at the time. It was a small production Bollywood film.

Pictures:Coming into New West/Burnaby

As seen from Bobby's scrapyard.

Russ on damage control

Here you can see that only a portion of it is burning (it's where the fire hoses are pointed). Russ said that if it had spread to the facades, then they'd be really screwed, because those would burn in a second and the fire department wouldn't even bother trying to save them. The fact that the fire was (as we passed) contained to the cement-based buildings was a good thing.

I should add that although Supernatural has invested a half a million into the backlot (according to Russ), it does not belong to them. They are just one of many productions that use it. Though according to Russ, not all productions look after it like Supernatural does. The person who is really screwed is Michael Buble, because apparently he was supposed to be filming a music video there tomorrow or the next day. Supernatural is supposed to film there next week, and may still be able to, but Russ already has his scouts looking for alternative locations just in case.

UPDATE:

No one was hurt when a warehouse being used by film crews caught fire Monday afternoon in Burnaby.

Flames were spotted shortly before 2pm on the northeast corner of Byrne Road at Marine Drive.

Burnaby RCMP Inspector Tim Shields says it appears a couple of welders working on some scrap metal sparked an explosion when they tore into a gas line.

Traffic had to be re-routed, but the fire is now under control. (source)

Current Mood: concerned

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Comments

bugger. Can't wait to hear about the trip. I did pick up form another COn goer, that Kevin Parks confirmed that they'd deliberately fucked with the timeline continuity, as they hadn't wanted to project the show ahead into 2012. Thought you'd like to hear that!

Evelyn & I (along w/my mom) were there!!!!! We saw the smoke as we were over by Burnaby Foreshore Park, came over on Bryne and parked across the street & watched the thing burn for a couple of hours. We kept willing the firefighters to stop it before it got to the sets, but I guess that didn't quite happen. :(

We took lots of pictures and some video. I'll be posting mine a little later tonight.

Get this...Evelyn & I were walking around the corner those buildings that caught on fire, literally less than an hour before it happened. o.O

OMG, NO!! I hope no one was hurt or anything, seeming that no one was inside, but still. Aww, that's so sad. =[ I hope they'll rebuild it to seemingly look like the shops there, like the bar and the pizzeria, ect. I wonder how it caught on fire in the first place while that small Bollywood production was filming there at the time. =/ Damn! Why couldn't that production team care for the backlot like Supernatural does?! I believe if they did, this could of been prevented! I swear, sometimes I think we get kicked in the jewels when we don't deserve it. Hopefully not much damage has been done so Supernatural can resume filming there.

That's terrible news but good that no one was hurt. As Russ said in his panel though, he enjoys all the challenges and I'm sure he'll find something else that will work if they can't use the site. Thanks for the pics and update.

Yes, Russ remained very positive after the phone call. I was really impressed with the way he handled everything today. He really is very good at his job and a capable professional. I doubt that Supernatural will suffer much because of this.

Crazy! I'm gonna be selfish and hope it doesn't mess with our show too much. But knowing how awesome the crew is makes me confident that it won't. Glad no one got hurt. Thanks for the info! You made it on twitter twice as an info source today. XD